Our matchup Feb 4 will determine who gets to play Northwestern and who gets to play Nebraska on Wednesday in Indy lol
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If by “year” you mean 2020, then…maybe. If you mean the season, then that’s obviously completely absurd.
Seems like 8-12 would really be pressing it. I guess it could depend on which 8 were the W’s.
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If the consensus remains that the conference gets 9 or 10 teams in, I highly doubt all of those teams have .500 records or better in conference. In other words, I think 2 sub .500 teams will make it in, so long as they don’t have a flame out in the B1G tourney as well.
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Was almost too obvious that Winston was going to miss that first free throw after banging his head on the floor.
Illinois now tied for first place in the B1G at 6-2.
Yea “year” obviously means 2020. Come on man.
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Did Holtmann just ride Keita Bates-Diop’s coattails his first year? He hasn’t done much since.
Is the B1G just a bunch of mediocre teams that protect their own house but really don’t have the talent/abilities to win away from the friendly confines of home?
Could be…I think 12 teams in the tournament is really a stretch. The committee will take advantage of the parity and move a few more Mid majors into the 64.
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I would certainly hope so, though the selection committee has never before shown a desire to do this. They tend to try to shoehorn in as many high-majors as possible.
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Likewise, you can’t just say you want more mid majors based on principle. Their resumes have to reflect that they deserve to be in if they don’t win their conference tournaments.
Absolutely. I’m thinking of the year the Pac-12 was massively overrated, got a lot of teams in the field, and they were all wiped out very early.
It’s historically been difficult for good mid-majors to schedule high-majors, as the latter see no gain in playing them.
I think the committee places too much emphasis on computer figures and not enough on the ‘eye test’. I often wonder how many members have even seen the best mid-majors play in a given season.
But the resume as the committee values will always be stacked against mid Majors. They’ll have 1 or 2 chances against high level teams, all on the road or if they’re lucky on a neutral court. Then if they lose 1 game to a Q3 or Q4 team they get dinged harshly, when in reality if a bubble type team had to play 15 of those games they would be expected to lose one at least.
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Big Ten is going to get a lot of bids, even if it appears “mediocre” because so many teams are established high up in the NET.
Yeah, I hear that and didn’t say it was fair, but that’s what the committee has to go off when making their tournament selections. Resumes and results, not hypotheticals for how mid major teams would do if they played more Q1 games. Because if you do the reverse and throw Minnesota or Michigan in the Big Sky, odds are they are going to destroy the league. Mid majors/low majors can beat good teams on one night in a single elimination format, but if you throw Montana in the Big Ten where every game is tough, they are likely to get beaten up badly over the course of a season. It’s fun seeing the little guys get a shot and make a run, but the idea is also to get the best 68 (or at least best 36 at large). Obviously if Dayton or San Diego State don’t win their leagues they will clearly get in. But if you don’t have much of an actual resume to rely on, you better win your tournament like always or at least put up a very gaudy record.
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I think the Big Ten is the only high-major conference which deserves more than 5 teams in at this point (with the possible exception of 6 from the Big East, depending on how the season plays out).
Right. But I think people would be surprised how many losses a mid-tier Power conference team would have in those conferences. They would certainly lose a game or two. It’s not easy to take a bus ride to some tiny gym and come out with a win.
I’m just saying that the mid major bubble teams (ala a Lipscomb or UNCG from last year) are held to an almost impossibly high standard. Last year Lipscomb had no real shot at an at large even though they were a really good team. They ended up losing to Texas in the NIT final, and would have been way more interesting as an at large than ASU or St Johns. Thankfully Belmost got in barely last year. They won their play in game and then put the fear of God into Maryland. Personally I would like them to try and match up mid major vs non-MM in the First Four. Maybe not make it a hard and fast rule but something to do if they are able.
I don’t even really count Dayton or SDSU since those conferences regularly get multiple bids.
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A graph to make us feel bad.
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